The Cheer Sport Sharks have capped their decade of dominance with the slogan “10 years strong”.

No truer words have been spoken.

This season, the Sharks have already devoured the competition at three fall meets, leading up to a swim down to the U.S. for most of their teams.

The feeding frenzy started at the Breath of Life meet in Mississauga, where the Bamboo, Bahama and Seal Sharks finished first, Whitespotted, Sailfin, Dusky and Golbin Sharks were second, Carol Sharks were third and Tiger Sharks fourth.

It was the first showing for some of the newer teams in the Cambridge and Ancaster gyms, said co-director Ali Moffatt.

From there, the Sharks four teams looking for worlds bids this year took to the floor at the PCA Nationals in Brampton. The open division nationals – earlier than regular nationals to include university teams – is the biggest test for some of the teams this season.

The level six Grey Reef Sharks and international level 5 Great Whites took first place, as did the open 4.2 Striped Sharks from Ottawa and the gym’s newest team, the large co-ed level 6 California Sharks.

“It’s full of athletes that are really experienced and have been cheering for years, and have come to our gym to be on that team,” said Moffatt of the Californians, who are coached by Vil Sihamanotham.

“This is a true co-ed team. They’re really impressive and they’re people who came from other gyms or university teams who heard that we were going to run an open team that was going to go to worlds and they were all on board. It’s an exciting new adventure for us.”

The three Cambridge teams, along with the newly formed small senior 5 Swell Sharks – made up of girls on various teams that applied to be on the Swells – will compete for world bids in March in Kitchener. This is the highest number of world qualifying teams the Sharks have put together.

If the PCA nationals is any indication, the three teams that competed look world ready, as the Great Whites won by 90 points, the Grey Reefs by 80 – their biggest margin of victory at the nationals – and the Californians were just amazing, according to Moffatt.

“They are going to be a great team for us on the world stage.”

From there, 32 Sharks teams, including their Ottawa squads, participated in Cheer for the Cure, probably the biggest competition of the fall because it’s a chance for every team to see their provincial opponents.

The Sharks tore apart the competitions, with 18 teams taking top spot and four teams named Grand Champions – highest points of all teams in their level – in four of six levels.

All of the Sharks mini teams and youth teams won their levels, and in some levels, the Sharks were first and second place when teams competed against each other.

“It’s amazing how well the teams are doing,” Moffatt said. “The routines are so fast-paced and so entertaining for this early in the season, and the kids are hitting them. That’s when the magic of 18 wins happens.

“The teams in the gym from last year at this time to this year at this point in the season, every team is doing much more difficult routines. I think that’s one of the key things for our success. Every season we start much better than we ended the season before.”

Moffatt said they Sharks could have 20 first place teams, but two teams were deducted points for performing something that was “technically illegal” and lost points, falling into second and third place, respectively.

“It happens, especially early on in the season. The rules in cheerleading are constantly changing; they change very often. Sometimes there’s interpretation of something we don’t do right. It’s actually quite common, but it sucks, because both teams had the highest scores in their division before that.

“That just shows how competitive our teams are, with those two teams we would have won 20 of 32 divisions. That’s insane.”

Moffatt added that she was proud of the their newest acquisition, the new gym in Ottawa, with teams pumped to be under the Sharks umbrella.

“The Ottawa teams did amazing. All of their teams came top three and one of our four Grand Champions (Whitetips) came from Ottawa. What an unbelievable showing for that gym in their first time out of the gates.”

With such a strong showing prior to Christmas, Moffatt can’t wait to see what her teams will do in the second half of the season.